


A Story About Love

by telemain



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cheating but not cheating but sort of cheating it's complicated okay, F/M, I write really long sentences I'm sorry, It's all Luna's fault really, Post-Series, best friends with benefits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-19 16:50:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11317611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telemain/pseuds/telemain
Summary: This is a story about love. This is a story about loving more than one person at the same time. Except not literally at the exact same time. Stop those thoughts right there.This is a story about Harry-and-Hermione. But it's also a story about Harry-and-Ginny and a story about Ron-and-Hermione. In a few ways, it's also a Harry-and-Ron-and-Ginny-and-Hermione story. Because they all love each other, although not all of those loves are expressed romantically or physically. (Not to forget Luna. She shows up too.)





	A Story About Love

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story from an alternate timeline from the main Harry Potter series. The timelines diverged after the Battle of Hogwarts, when Harry begged a dose of Felix Felicis from Professor Slughorn, and managed to perform the Ritual of the Wand and the Ring and the Cloak. Sort of managed. More people were alive afterwards than had been before, and reality wasn't _too_ mangled, so, on balance, he succeeded.

Consider Harry Potter and Hermione Granger in 2011, twenty years after they met at the age of 11. He's married to Ginny Weasley, former international Quidditch star player and coach and now commentator for Wizardvision; they have three children: James, Albus, and Lily. She's married to Ron Weasley, vice president of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, specifically vice president in charge of confectionary; they have two children _(Rose and Hugo)_ and are thinking of a third.

(Over the last fifteen years since it was founded by Fred and George, WWW has branched out from edible tricks and enchanted prank items into regular candy _(the kind you eat for the taste, not to turn your hair plaid)_ , straightforward toys for "children of all ages", games _(card, board, cardboard, and outdoor)_ , clothing with humorous slogans or with the logo of one Quidditch team or another; basically, "if it makes people smile, we want in on it" to quote George Weasley. They're even considering dabbling in Quidditch brooms, liquor, and some other interesting concepts imported from the Muggle world. The only Weasley children not involved in the business now in some way are Charlie, too busy with dragons, and Ginny, too busy with the Quidditch world _(although if they branch out into brooms, she’ll probably be involved in some way)_ ; their parents, meanwhile, are proud beyond words, if still in Molly's case very faintly disapproving.)

If you had asked either one of them - which would have been a horrible idea, given:

she was the Chief Advisor to the Minister for Magic, and, rumour had it, not only really ran the Ministry but had her own spy network inside the walls;

_(house-elves, or in this case Ministry-elves, but she doesn't mention that; neither should you, anyway, they draw a salary and wear uniforms, and their services have saved the government from collapse at least once, so -)_

he was head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement, Chief Auror, had dueled Voldemort before he was fifteen, and had performed, after defeating Voldemort at not-quite-eighteen, in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, a ritual that raised the dead to life;

_(and had in the process torn open reality, requiring the shade of Albus Dumbledore to come and put things right, but he doesn't mention that; neither should you, anyway, it resulted in the return of Fred and Remus and Tonks and Sirius from the Darkness, so-)_

\- so you wouldn't dare ask, if you knew.

But if they'd ever asked each other, or wondered themselves, when It - with a capital I - had begun, they would have had several potential candidates.

Perhaps it had been when Ron had abandoned them in the forest, and Hermione had sobbed herself to sleep in his arms. _(Perhaps when Ron came back, and she saw in Harry's eyes that he might forgive, but he would never forget, and she wondered if she could even forgive.)_

Perhaps when she decided to go back to Hogwarts that September, and she pleaded Harry to come along instead of going to Auror training, telling him that he'd be much better off having attended 7th year classes, even if Kingsley - Minister Shacklebolt - had personally told Harry that Harry _(and Ron, if he wanted)_ had a free pass past any required test results. Later she wondered why she hadn't pleaded with Ron. Maybe because that she knew, after the Forest, he wouldn't dare not follow wherever she and Harry led, and she did wish that he would lead somewhere sometimes.

Perhaps when - after she had retrieved her parents from Australia, which was a story in itself - Ron went to speak to her father over a bottle of Firewhiskey, since both Muggles and Wizards shared the tradition of asking a girl's father for permission to ask for her hand in marriage, and had, through insecurity and immaturity, completely misinterpreted everything her father had said; he was concerned that they weren't compatible, but Ron had heard he doubted Ron's feelings and/or his commitment.

_(Perhaps during the fight which ensued, when he couldn't understand why she wouldn't want to get married right out of Hogwarts.)_

Perhaps when, after they left school, she had wanted to live in the magical world, and not with her parents anymore (for many reasons, only some of which had to do with privacy, and Ron, and her dad's newly lowered opinion of him), so she'd gone ahead and moved in with Harry.

... which probably requires an explanation. Harry'd realized he was effectively homeless, since there was no way he'd ever set foot in Number Four Privet Drive again, and Sirius, after reappearing from the afterlife, had decided to burn down 12 Grimmauld Place, not that Harry'd wanted to live there, either. He'd also realized he had a lot of money. So after making a few inquiries, he'd bought a four bedroom house in a magical neighborhood on the outskirts of London _("Four bedrooms?" "Planning ahead!")_ and he was perfectly happy to let Hermione occupy one of the other bedrooms until such plans came to fruition. She'd offered to pay rent and he'd scoffed; she'd settled for buying a little more than half of the groceries, getting a really nice couch, and doing most of the chores, not that those were much of a chore with a wand and a book of household charms.

(Ron and Ginny had been invited to live there as well, but Molly held Views about pre-marital cohabiting, as well as having become, after what she kept referring to as Fred's 'near-Death' experience _(and Fred as 'Death's near-Fred experience')_ , rather protective of her children, and had wanted them all – including Bill and Fleur – to move back into the Burrow.

That hadn't flown.)

Perhaps when she'd wanted to see that Muggle film and he'd gone with her, with Ron working late and Ginny on the road. It had then become a routine, every two or three weeks; they found it refreshing to go out in public not as **Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived** and **Hermione Granger, Smartest Witch of Her Generation Also Smarter Than The Wizards Of Her Generation Too** but just as “Leo” and “Harriet”, just two out of the several million people who lived in and around Greater London.

(Ron and Ginny had been invited along as well, every time, but they seldom made it; Ron was working long hours routinely; sales at WWW were taking off and Ron had found something to do that mattered, that wasn't just homework that hundreds of students had done before. He was throwing himself heart and soul into his work. As for Ginny, when she wasn't actually playing or traveling with the team, she was practicing or exercising or at the mediwitch's or too tired to go out. They both still felt awkward in the Muggle world anyway.)

Perhaps, at the most basic level, it had begun when his wand went up that troll's nose.

It had begun – whenever It had begun - a long time before It actually happened. This is how it happened:

Luna had come over and brought dinner.

Luna requires some explanation, too, while at the same time defying all explanation, as she does. After leaving Hogwarts, she stopped in London briefly to check on her father _(recovering nicely in St Mungo’s)_ , bought a large mokeskin pouch in Diagon Alley, and headed out to explore the world, make art, write poetry, invent spells, and discover long lost _(or never known)_ animals. About every three months she reappeared in London and either came over to Harry's and cooked dinner or took whoever was around out to a restaurant. Ron and Ginny always showed up for these occasions, as did Neville often and once even Dean and Seamus; Luna's cooking was unusual but excellent, as were her restaurant choices.

The night in question, about two years after Hermione had moved in with Harry, she was just back from San Francisco, having spent a month literally underwater searching every square meter of the bottom of San Francisco Bay for something she'd described as a glowing worm "the size of your arm" that could make you instantly forget about seeing it. _(“How do you know if you’ve found it?” “You take lots of pictures.”)_ For dinner that night it was just her, Harry, and Hermione, and Luna – showing off some food preservation charms she'd been working on – had brought the food from eight timezones away: a Dutch oven full of seafood stew that tasted of red wine and tomatoes, with two warm crunchy loaves of garlic sourdough bread, two bottles of Zinfandel, and a bottle of something yellow-green with the flavors of anise, wormwood, and brain damage.

Not that either of them would blame the drink later, if they thought of it, or even Luna's particular method of saying goodnight. As the time passed 2am and Harry thought he could no longer keep his eyes open, Luna left them another bottle of absinthe, refused offers of one of the spare bedrooms for the night, muttering something about “not confusing the house”, and they walked her out onto the small front porch. She stepped forward to hug Hermione -

And then kissed her, quickly but firmly, right on the mouth.

As Hermione stepped back, startled, Luna let go, turned to Harry, put her hands on his shoulders, stretching up on tiptoe, and did the same. She smiled at both of them, stepped back off the porch and outside the wards, spun in place, and Disapparated with just the smallest whoosh of air.

Harry and Hermione were left staring at the empty place, and at each other, in a sort of speechless surprise that neither had thought Luna could provoke anymore. Inside again, clearing away the dishes and casting a few quick cleaning charms, they still didn't discuss it. It was only in the upstairs hallway, outside the bedrooms, that the tension broke into amazed babbling and laughter at their friend who somehow still managed to surprise them.

Neither of them, they agreed, were in the habit of kissing their friends. But with Luna, it was okay, it was just one more facet of her Luna-ness. _(Which Hermione did not pun into “Lunacy”, out loud, but she did think of it.)_

Then their eyes met. And held.

The kiss was playful and fun.

The second kiss was warm and friendly, slower than the ones they had shared with Luna, but cozy and comforting.

She turned to open her door, as he took a step towards his, then turned back as he stepped towards her again.

The next kiss was hot and hungry, demanding and yearning, taking and giving. So was the next, and the next, until they lost count. Until-

In the incredibly awkward conversation that ensued the following morning, they established a few things:

\- They loved each other but

\- were not in love with each other.

\- He loved Ginny _(as did she, really, the sister Hermione never had)_ and was in love with her.

\- She loved Ron _(as did he, really, just like a brother since first year)_ and was in love with him.

\- It hadn't been either's first time; that had been with the ones they were really in love with.

\- A relationship between them – Harry and Hermione – would be a terrible idea, for reason of compatibility alone, never mind what it would do to their family. The Weasley family, that is, which both considered themselves part of.

\- And -- that they had to do It again: 

_(“What.” “Hear me out...”)_

Once – once after a long night and under the influence of alcohol and Luna – could eventually be rationalized away as a mistake, a fluke, an incident.

Therefore, eventually, they would be tempted to come clean. Which would be the worst possible thing for everyone involved. If they did it again, in the cold light of morning, in the full and sober – if slightly hungover – awareness of what they were doing, they couldn't ever rationalize it away. And they would have to keep it a secret.

So they agreed. And so they did It again.

And it was even better the second time.

It should have ended then and there. But – much like the Muggle outings which they kept going on – it became a habit. Then a routine. But not ever routine, and not ever common. Once every week or three. It wasn't hard to find time; much easier than it was to find time with the people they were actually dating: Ron loved his job and was making the company _(read: his family)_ tons of money with every hour he worked; Ginny loved her job and - due to team rules - was only home when the team was playing at home: when “away” she was required to travel with, eat with, and stay overnight with the team “for team spirit”. No Apparating over to Harry's for a quickie, or even a not-so-quickie. 

It should have ended, in fact, more than once. 

It should have ended the day a photographer caught them in Muggle London, exiting a restaurant, laughing and with her hand on his shoulder; the pictures were in Witch Weekly the next Saturday. Everyone who remembered the nonsense of their fourth year stood by Harry and Hermione and not even Rita Skeeter picked up her poison quill. _(Fortunately for them, the photographer hadn’t caught them actually holding hands in the restaurant, or stealing a kiss in the back corridor by the restrooms.)_

It should have ended when, at one of Ginny’s games, Ron _(who made time when her team played against Chudley, even though he didn’t quite know who to root for)_ had clapped Harry on the shoulder and said he was the only bloke he’d trust to live with Hermione. Harry had stared up into the sky, pretending to watch for the Snitch, and thanked Merlin Ron wasn’t an Occlumens. 

It should have ended with her marriage to Ron and his to Ginny. Molly had made noises about how lovely a double wedding would be, with Ron and Harry standing as each other’s best man and Ginny and Hermione standing as each other’s Maid of Honor, but Ginny and Ron had talked her down, each wanting their wedding day to be about themselves. Harry and Ginny would get married first, then Ron and Hermione the next weekend _(a double ceremony, actually, the wizarding one on Saturday at the Burrow; a Muggle ceremony in London on the Sunday)_ ; as Harry and Ginny’s honeymoon would have to wait until after the Quidditch season, they’d still be around to participate. The week before Harry and Ginny’s marriage, Ron moved into a flat in Diagon Alley, close to the shop; the day before, Hermione moved out of Harry’s and into Ron’s old room at the Burrow. She had slept with Harry - literally slept, fully clothed, in positions designed to suggest they had collapsed from exhaustion, slept together with Harry for the third and what they both were sure would be the last time - on the couch the night before she moved out, with everything of hers including her bed packed. And with her leaving the house, and Harry about to be married, and Harry’s wife moving in, and her about to be married the week after, and her moving in with Ron… well, that would surely be the end of It - right? 

It should have been. 

_(Luna was there for both weddings, the first time they had seen her in a year, and kissed all four of them, as well as Neville, before departing. Harry and Hermione had to hide their blushes and inappropriate laughter.)_

It should have ended when Hermione and Ron decided that they would begin trying to have a child. Harry and Ginny’s first was two years old, and their second was already due. So the Muggle pills and the Wizard potions Hermione was taking had to stop, and neither she nor Harry would dare cast a Contraceptive Charm - wands had a memory, and everyone knew Priori Incantatem would show that memory, and both of them were by now even more public figures than they had been at Hogwarts, and you never knew when some prankster might try to embarrass one of them. 

It should have ended the day Ron dropped in at Harry’s to tell him happy news and to ask him to stand godfather to Ron’s firstborn, only for Hermione to have beaten him there and one thing having led to another. Ron, being one of the few people keyed to Apparate straight through the wards, had popped directly into the living room, and Hermione - showing remarkable presence of mind - had realized quickly that if Ron was at Harry’s, he was not at their home and therefore no one _(except her cat)_ would notice her Apparating into their bedroom disheveled and breathless. As for Harry, he had managed to get dressed quickly - and hide certain abandoned articles of female clothing under his bed - and greet Ron in the living room before Ron came looking for him.

There were many times It should have ended. It hasn’t. This is how It continues:

Consider Harry Potter and Hermione Granger in 2016, twenty-five years after they met at the age of 11:

He's retired from field duty as an Auror but is still head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, married to Ginny Weasley, former international Quidditch star player, later coach, still later commentator for Wizardvision, now Quidditch expert on-staff for the Daily Prophet and spokeswitch for WeasleyBrooms; their eldest son is a second-year at Hogwarts, and the middle one leaves in September.

She's just been elected Minister for Magic, and is married to Ron Weasley, President and CEO of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes; _(Fred and George have stepped back from administrative roles to creative roles)_ they’ve decided they’re happy with two children, the elder of whom will also head for Hogwarts in September, and Hermione makes liberal and carefully constant use of the many Magical and Muggle methods for ensuring she has no more children. 

She’s only the second Muggle-born Minister in history. It amazed most political observers that a Muggle-born was a compromise candidate, but she already held the post of Chief Advisor to the Minister and therefore was something of a safe default choice. The first thing she did was to schedule regular meetings with each of her department heads, ranging from once-a-month up to once-a-week, although only the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is scheduled that frequently. And if these meetings sometimes take place outside the Ministry over lunch, or in the Minister’s private _(and heavily warded)_ offices over a takeaway dinner, or even late at night at her home or his, who’s to comment? The DMLE is the biggest and most important department in the Ministry, there’s rumors of another Dark Lord rising, and anyway Harry Potter and Hermione Granger have been best friends, close as brother-and-sister, since their first year at Hogwarts, everyone knows that, they’re siblings-in-law-once-removed through the Weasleys, certainly if they spend a lot of time together, no one is going to dare comment. 

A few people do comment, actually, but no one who matters hears and no one who hears cares. And not a single person suspects. 

Except perhaps Luna.

This is a story about love. This is a story about Harry and the two women he loves; this is a story about Hermione and the two men she loves. For certainly they both still love their respective spouses, and certainly nothing in the above narrative should be taken to imply that either marriage is passionless, unhappy, or unsuccessful. Quite the opposite, really. 

And if sometimes Harry is kept awake through the night by a small amount of guilt as Ginny contentedly sleeps next to him, or if sometimes Hermione can’t quite meet Ron’s eyes when he smiles just for her, disguising her discomfort with feigned blushes that she hides behind her hand… that’s just part of a story about love.


End file.
